I haven't been able to duplicate your issue. My guess is that you might have turned off a hardware switch. (For example, on my Aspire 4720z there's a button that turns it on and off, unfortunately, it's not a switch that's in one position or another. simply a button that's pressed.)

If using MadWifi, the card is probably called ath0, rather than wlan0. (That's not a definite, but is usually the case.)

Make sure that whichever one you're using, (ath_pci or ath5k) that you've blacklisted the other one.

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem with you. same wireless card. same fedora10! do you solve that problem?

I have XP and Fedora 10 both in my laptop. Recently I find my Network Manager didn't show any AP, not by updating or other "things", the problem just occur suddenly, just "suddenly". when I entered the windows I found my wireless didn't work either! In fact wireless did work well in fedora several minute ago.